Nice guests on the boat today; the whale watching was good. Different, but good. K-Pod is in the area, so we had to decide whether to run north and hope to catch J-Pod, or run south and have a sure bet with seeing the Ks. Easy call: we're going south. Oh, and a conditions report of 1 foot chop and a "slightly uncomfortable roll." Yep, still going south.
When we got to the area where the Ks were, we could see that they were moving in a determined manner, to the south. A lot of foraging, with longer than typical dives, and not a lot of surface activity. I prefer to be able to shut down for viewing, but there wasn't much of that today... if you wanted to continue to see the Orcas, we had to move along with them. The rolling conditions weren't terrible, but there was a constant back and forth motion... at that flybridge helm, it is a little like riding on top of a metronome. ;-)
On deck, where the guests are, the ride is more comfortable.
I wasn't able to get photos of the whales, because I had my hands full at the helm, when we were with the whales. Go back a day or twelve in this blog and you'll find plenty of whale photos. ;-) Looking out the helm, we were in a "conga line" today...
It wasn't real congested, and there was room for everyone. For a while, we were joined by a couple in a Marinaut...
They were respectful of the distances, and I enjoyed seeing the boat in the water again (saw it earlier this week, too). I also saw it last week in Friday Harbor. That boat stands out to me because a friend of mine (Oldgrowth Dave) was in on the design and the making of the first boat. Later, Les of EQ Marine took on the building of these boats. To me, they are the evolution of what the C-Dory 22 could be... if it had evolved. There is a lot of tradition with the C-Dorys, so making big changes to them is like Harley-Davidson making big changes to their motorcycles. But, for a smaller boat, the Marinaut is a smart design.
The lady in the Marinaut said, "I read your blog every day!"
My first mate said, "You have a blog?" I'm sure she'll be checking to see if I said anything derogatory - never; I appreciate all they do.
When we were ready to head back to Friday Harbor, those pesky whales got between us and the straight route to Cattle Pass... I eased us away from the boats still viewing, and ran an arc to get well ahead of the whales and make our entry to Cattle Pass. Stopping at Whale Rocks, we saw a Stellar Sea Lion on the rocks...
It's been a couple weeks since I've seen one. They are impressively large animals.
Cattle Pass was churned up pretty good. It took a lot of throttle to keep the boat where the guests could see the Stellar. That wave you see in front of the Stellar is a standing wave... and much of the pass looked just like that. Fortunately, most of it was a foot and a half or less. We have seen it much worse. Heading north, I picked my path through the standing waves and eddies flowing in the pass. Once through, I went down to check on the guests, "Everybody still doing OK? It probably didn't feel like it, but that was the 'softest' routing through the pass."
A lot of smiles and nods. I said, "Anyone wanna go through again?!" A big cheer from the folks onboard... yep, a fun group.
Back in Friday Harbor, we made our arrival to our dock... the boss was there on our other boat... I guess I better make this arrival look good. ;-) We thanked the folks, said our good-byes, then cleaned up the boat.
My work week is done. My Honey was able to be done at the same time - yes, that is unusual. We were able to go out for supper and be like real grown-ups. Three days off; no firm plans, but I'm guessing there will be some scooter time.
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